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All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library Service
Center. The library may require up to 48 hours to retrieve these materials for research use.

Please contact
Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to
use this collection.

Copyright Notice

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more
information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

The collection is organized into two series: Business Files and Photographs, Negatives and Slides. The Business Files Series includes
clippings, corporation reports, poster boards,
promotional materials, and regional maps.
Large regional maps and poster boards
in this series were used for presentations.
The Photographs, Negatives and Slides Series
makes up the bulk of the collection, and chiefly consists of photographs and
slides of billboards in northern Ohio from the 1930s-1990s.
Photographs by the E.A. Eckhert Company also
document Ohio street locations and outdoor advertising activties.
Included are photographs of
actress and Westinghouse spokeswoman Betty Furness and a 1938
photograph of a handmade sign in support of Adolph Hitler hanging over a billboard.
Slides, which range from 1967-1978, were used in business presentations
for outdoor advertising staff or to improve public relations
through community outreach.

Large-format materials have been removed from their original
series locations and relocated to Oversize Materials.
Relocated items have been replaced in the Detailed Description of the Collection
by dummy folders enclosed in brackets.

Subject Headings

These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the
Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.

Materials related to this collection may be found in other Hartman
Center collections, including the Outdoor Advertising
Association of America (OAAA) Archives, OAAA Poster
Design Collection, and the OAAA Slide Library.

Contents of Collection
Business Files Series,
1951-1991 and undated(1 box)

Consists of photographs, negatives, and slides that document billboards and the outdoor
advertising industry in northern Ohio. Series is arranged into three categories:
Loose photographs
and negatives; Photograph albums; and Slides.
The Loose photographs
and negatives and Photograph albums categories share similar content.
The bulk of photographs are of northern Ohio billboards from the 1970s-1990s that promoted both
local and national products and services. The majority of outdoor advertising companies represented
in this series
were linked with Ohio Outdoor Advertising Company through business ties, with the exception of
Hart Advertising, Inc., which was a rival to Ohio Outdoor.
The earlier
E.A. Eckhert photographs (1937-1970s) also include images of Ohio street locations and outdoor advertising
activities.
Included are photographs of
actress and Westinghouse spokeswoman Betty Furness posing
with members of the Advertising Club of North Central Ohio, and
a 1938 photograph of a handmade sign in support of Adolph Hitler hanging over a billboard.
Slides, which range from 1967-1978, were used in
instructional presentations
for outdoor advertising staff or to improve public relations
through community outreach. Some slide sets in this collection were
developed by the Outdoor Advertising Association of
America (OAAA) and designed to be distributed to outdoor advertising companies
across the United States for use in their
local community presentations
to city councils and the general public.

Loose photographs and negatives,
1929-1994 and undated

Consists of black and white and color photographs and negatives.
Arranged in alphabetical order within
category, with the exception of the Hart photographs, which
have been kept in original order.

Consists of black and white and color photographs and negatives that were originally
kept in photograph albums. Much of the content is similar to photographs in
Loose photographs and negatives. Arranged in original order.